Adding another string to EE’s bow
BT Wholesale says it will offer EE mobile connectivity to the wholesale market early next year if trials go to plan.
EE is in the throes of diversifying services, having recently partnered security service providers Verisign and Norton, then offering home security and cybersecurity packages to its customers. The mobile operator, part of the BT Group, said there will be more such agreements to follow enabling EE customers to buy much more than connectivity, such as insurance packages.
On the BT Wholesale front, apparently this will be the first time that EE connectivity (4G and 5G) is available to enterprise resellers that are members of Partner Plus (BT Wholesale’s partner programme) via a direct channel with BT Wholesale.
EE intends to cover 90% of the UK’s landmass with 5G by 2028, “with requestable, on-demand solutions anywhere beyond” – meaning resellers and their customers will be able to use 5G solutions “anywhere”.
BT is due to switch off the PSTN in 2025 and sees this as smoothing the path away from enterprises’ legacy voice environments and “lay the futureproofed foundations for greater use of innovative technologies”.
BT Wholesale’s fixed solutions and services are supported by the Openreach network, a semi-detached unit of BT.
Gavin Jones, Channel Partners Director at BT Wholesale said, somewhat ungrammatically, “We’re providing partners with Complete Convergence across fibre, cloud voice and mobile. The EE mobile SIM is another way to deliver unparalleled access however partners need it. Ultimately, this backs resellers to maximise relationships as customers take more control of their digital destiny.”
BT Wholesale offer partners channel-specific propositions. Last year, it launched WHC Express, a cloud-based telephony system designed for businesses with 10 employees or fewer to receive and make calls across fixed and mobile devices.
That launch coincided with the availability of Broadband One, an end-to-end managed service that allows partners to provide small businesses with connections of up to 1Gpbs across FTTP and Single Order Generic Ethernet Access.